Karl von Reden
Senior Research Specialist
National Ocean Sciences
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility
kvonreden@whoi.edu

Complete Listing of Publications (pdf version)
Curriculum Vitae (pdf version)

Education:
M.S. (Diploma) Universität Hamburg, 1979, Physics
Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) Universität Hamburg, 1983, Nuclear Physics

Research interests:
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). Applications of nuclear physics
experimental methods in the environmental and life sciences. Ion sources.
Computer modeling of ion beam optics, electromagnetic and electrostatic lenses.

Recent Projects:

"Radiocarbon dating of a very large African baobab" [1]

In this study we investigated the belief of South African bushmen that the giant baobab trees of that region could live well in excess of 1000 years. Unfortunately, one of the largest of these specimens, Grootboom, in Namibia, fell victim to a still mysterious disease in 2004 and then died and fell in 2005. Samples were taken from the fallen trunks of the mammoth tree and dated at our facility. Three of the samples exceeded 1000 years of age, making baobabs the oldest known flowering, non-coniferous, angiosperm trees in existence. Further research on other still living baobabs is underway.

[1] Patrut, A., K.F. von Reden, D.A. Lowy, A.H. Alberts, J.W. Pohlman, R. Wittmann,
D. Gerlach, L. Xu, C.S. Mitchell, Radiocarbon dating of a very large African baobab,
Tree Physiology 27 (2007) 1569 - 1574.

"Carbon nanotube foils for electron stripping in tandem accelerators"

Enid Sichel and I are investigating the possibility of using carbon nanotubes as stripper foils in tandem accelerators. We have done preliminary tests, resulting in a paper [2] and a patent application that is now pending with the US Patent Office.

Film of carbon nanotube strands, roughly 3 micrograms per square cm

[2] von Reden, K.F., M. Zhang, M. Meigs, E. Sichel, S. Fang, R. Baughman, Carbon
Nanotube Foils for Electron Stripping in Tandem Accelerators, CAARI 2006 Proceedings,
Nucl. Inst. & Meth. in Physics Research B 261 (2007) 44 – 48.